62 A History of Judaism
and sat down, and, with ‘the eyes of all in the synagogue ... fixed upon
him’, began the interpretation of the text which caused uproar: ‘Today
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ In this story at least, the
choice of reading seems to have been left to the reader, and the same
may be implied by disagreement in the Mishnah over the propriety of
using some passages for public readings at all: ‘They may not use the
chapter of the Chariot as a reading from the Prophets, but R. Judah
permits it.’ It is paradoxical that the (minimal) information to be gleaned
from the Mishnah about public readings of this kind comes from a sec-
tion dedicated to more detailed discussion of the only biblical book
which seems regularly to have been recited in full in one sitting. This
book, neither from the Torah nor from the Prophets but from the Writ-
ings, was the book of Esther. The reading of the scroll of Esther provided
the central rite for the festival of Purim, which celebrated the Jews’
escape from destruction under the Persian king Ahasuerus, events which
constitute its main narrative: according to the Mishnah ‘the Scroll is
read on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, or 15th [of (the month of) Adar],
never earlier and never later,’ and the text goes on to define which date
is correct for which community.^35
When a passage had been read, the congregation expected an
interpretation – hence the attentive (if unappreciative) audience for
Jesus’ interpretation of Isaiah in the synagogue of Nazareth. Such inter-
pretation could vary greatly both in format and in contents. Most
straightforward was translation into the vernacular, not just the trans-
lation of the whole text into Greek for those unfamiliar with Semitic
languages, as we have seen in Chapter 2, but a targum, a version in
Aramaic of the Hebrew of both the law and the prophets verse by verse:
‘He that reads in the Law may not read less than three verses [in total];
he may not read to the interpreter more than one verse ... They may
leave out verses in the Prophets, but not in the Law. How much may
they leave out? Only so much that he leaves no time for the interpreter
to make a pause.’ The Aramaic versions of the Pentateuch and prophets
which survive from later antiquity include much which goes far beyond
a straight translation of the Hebrew, as in the leading role ascribed to
Isaac as a free agent in one Aramaic version of the dramatic story in
Genesis 22 of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son when com-
manded to do so by the Lord: ‘Isaac spoke up and said to his father:
“Tie me well lest I struggle because of the anguish of my soul, with the
result that a blemish will be found in your offering, and I will be thrust
into the pit of destruction.” The eyes of Abraham were looking at the